Vietnam court upholds verdict, sentences anti-State instigator to 10 yrs
Friday, December 01, 2017, 11:27 GMT+7
The Da Nang-based Council of Judges of the Vietnam Supreme People’s Court on Thursday upheld a ten-year imprisonment sentence for Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a.k.a. ‘Me Nam’, for propagandizing against the state.
The appeal took place in Nha Trang City in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa.
Quynh, who resides in Nha Trang’s Vinh Phuoc Ward, was taken into custody by Khanh Hoa Police on October 10, 2016 on charges of spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under Article 88 of the country’s Penal Code.
The 38-year-old convict had used personal Facebook accounts between 2012 and October 2016 to draft, post, and share stories with false and groundless content that distorted, criticized, and defamed the country’s laws and the guidelines and policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported, citing her indictment.
Quynh’s stories stirred up public worry and affected the people’s trust in the Party’s leadership and the state’s governance and management of society, inciting people to resist the state and thereby risking national security, social order, and safety, the indictment reads.
The indictment also cites several interviews given by Quynh to foreign press and media outlets between 2013 and 2016 in which she distorted the country’s history, economy, politics, defense, diplomacy, law, democracy, and human rights policies, according to the indictment.
In 2014, she created and posted a file of documents named ‘Stop police killing civilians’ which took a hostile stance against Vietnam’s public security forces, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
Quynh, on multiple occasions, organized or took part in activities and events aimed at inciting Vietnamese citizens to oppose the State.
Several publications found at her house contained content that distorted the socialist regime and encouraged the sabotage of national unity, according to the indictment.
At the appeals trial, Quynh admitted to the violations but stated that her actions had not been meant to oppose the state.
However, the Council of Judges decided to uphold the verdict issued at the first instance trial, sentencing Quynh to ten years behind bars for conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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